Education Policy Reforms Emerge at Capitol

Two education policy reforms are emerging at the State Capitol. A new bill was introduced to repeal a law made last session related to Minnesota Teacher Licensure Exams (MTLE) and the Senate Education Policy Committee on Tuesday will address recommendations from the Assessment and Accountability Working Group.

Minnesota Teacher Licensure ExamsThe House Education Policy committee reviewed recent changes made by the Board of Teaching to the Minnesota Teacher Licensure Exams. The Board of Teaching has come under a lot of scrutiny for adopting cut scores on the MTLEs that are leaving many student teacher graduates behind in terms of not passing their content area exams. In addition to the MTLE content tests, the requirement for passing the Basic Skills Exam is under fire by some in the legislature.

This requirement was made into law last session and has led to one story after another of new, talented teacher candidates losing their positions or not even applying for position in schools. Rep. John Ward introduced HF 171 that would repeal the new law. View the bill.

Assessments & AccountabilityThe Senate Education Policy committee will review this week the recommendations from the Assessment and Accountability Working Group that call for the repeal of the Math GRAD as a requirement for high school graduation.